iPad & Kronos - setup and fav apps

[ed_f]

For me using the ipad with the Kronos is all about getting more knobs and buttons and reaching in to places I can't from the control surface and doing it all on a big responsive touch screen.

Midi Designer and touchOsc are great. I am thinking of getting Lemur. I was about ready to buy it back when it was hardware too and really expensive, seems pretty amazing on the ipad.

[SanderXpander]

For me using the ipad with the Kronos is all about getting more knobs and buttons and reaching in to places I can't from the control surface and doing it all on a big responsive touch screen.

Midi Designer and touchOsc are great. I am thinking of getting Lemur. I was about ready to buy it back when it was hardware too and really expensive, seems pretty amazing on the ipad.

Huh. Those are the two I didn't get
I went for MidiTouch on a friend's recommendation, and Lemur for deep exploration later. It seems quite complicated to create something but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. MidiTouch is a lot more straightforward but it seems to lack the option to send pitchbend?? I sent a mail to the developer, that'd be ridiculous if true.

I also got TouchAble for Ableton and V-Control for Sonar (and Ableton again). I think I'm set with the midi control options for now

[ed_f]

For me using the ipad with the Kronos is all about getting more knobs and buttons and reaching in to places I can't from the control surface and doing it all on a big responsive touch screen.

Midi Designer and touchOsc are great. I am thinking of getting Lemur. I was about ready to buy it back when it was hardware too and really expensive, seems pretty amazing on the ipad.

Huh. Those are the two I didn't get
I went for MidiTouch on a friend's recommendation, and Lemur for deep exploration later. It seems quite complicated to create something but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. MidiTouch is a lot more straightforward but it seems to lack the option to send pitchbend?? I sent a mail to the developer, that'd be ridiculous if true.

I also got TouchAble for Ableton and V-Control for Sonar (and Ableton again). I think I'm set with the midi control options for now

Any sense of which is best for sending sysex and easy to configure? That is such an important part of tapping in.

[SanderXpander]

I'm sure Lemur could do it too but it seems altogether more complicated (and, I'm sure, powerful), but MidiTouch seems relatively easy to program SysEx in. If you know the strings, just enter them. I don't think there's a learn function. Also, importantly, if I remember correctly from my friends, the Alesis IO dock doesn't support SysEx, meaning it will literally filter them out. Someone else might comment on this if they know more.

I also read that MidiTouch isn't very actively supported anymore, but it seems pretty well built to me so far, apart from the lack of pitchbend which is hard to believe. Still trying to find out about that.

[QuiRobinez]

Crap, I just found out that for some reason, Filtatron doesn't work with USB audio / the camera connection kit. So no filtering the Kronos

I've tried it, it works and I can hear the filters working, but my guess is that it uses a different samplerate, so that's why you hear the 'stutter' effect on top of the filtered sound and you can't indeed use it live.

I set it up as following, this is an Effect, so you need to remove the original signal from the kronos, since normally the sound is merged together with the ipad sound.

So here's how to set it up:

in global - audio set the USB 1 and 2 bus select to 1/2 (panned left and right)

also connect 2 output cables from output 1 and 2 to your mixer

Now turn down the Volume knob on the kronos (you are going to use the output 1 and 2)
then open filtratron, set the line knob to max and the osc knob to zero (so that it's an filter for external instruments) and set the parameters to your liking and now you have the output of your kronos routed to the Ipad which acts just like any other hardware FX machine.

I'm using Loopy HD a lot, and to record only the played part and hear the other recorded parts you need to set it up the same.

I have a huge amount of musical ipad apps, but my two favorites are absolutely:
Loopy HD (loop recorder, easy, quick, very stable and perfect for the job(
Waldorf Nave (this is an incredible synth, you can even use your own samples with it and synthesize them)

[SanderXpander]

Qui, this is what I did too, but it stutters for me. I notified Moog music actually, and the guy thanked me for the bug report and said he would pass it on to the software team. That doesn't mean they'll fix it of course but it gives hope.

I spent the day discovering the joys of combining Reaktor with Lemur!

[QuiRobinez]

Qui, this is what I did too, but it stutters for me. I notified Moog music actually, and the guy thanked me for the bug report and said he would pass it on to the software team. That doesn't mean they'll fix it of course but it gives hope.

I spent the day discovering the joys of combining Reaktor with Lemur!

nice!!!

is lemur worth the price? (i'm still in doubt to buy it)

[SanderXpander]

I don't know which midi controller apps you already have so it's hard to judge. Plus I've really only scratched the surface so far. It seems really very very deep, the basics like making sliders and buttons are very simple but it allows scripting too, meaning you can have one controller's behavior be affected by another. Combined with the physics part it seems insanely powerful. Kind of like a midi controller iPad version of Reaktor itself I suppose.

If you don't think you'll use the physics much or don't want to learn the scripting I'm not sure it's worth it. If you do feel like digging in and don't mind that it's rather more complex than most other midi controller apps I don't think you would ever need another one. Check out the user content if you feel like it, there's a couple of cool examples of what people did.

[BobTheDog]

Qui, this is what I did too, but it stutters for me. I notified Moog music actually, and the guy thanked me for the bug report and said he would pass it on to the software team. That doesn't mean they'll fix it of course but it gives hope.

I spent the day discovering the joys of combining Reaktor with Lemur!

nice!!!

is lemur worth the price? (i'm still in doubt to buy it)

Well I paid €2000 for mine so the ios one must be a bargain!

[SanderXpander]

Just programmed a super simple noise sweep using lemur and AL1. I made a patch with just the noise sounding (turn down everything else in the mixer), picked a bandpass filter with a touch of resonance, set the initial cutoff at 63.
On the Lemur I made a multiball and set the Z to note on (I chose pitch 63, doesn't really matter). X is CC# 74, Y is CC#7. I put them all on channel 2 so when I create a custom combi for some dance track I can put the sweep on a timbre with channel 2. Add some delay and reverb, works a charm. You could also substitute CC#7 (volume) for CC#71 (resonance) but I found that it worked best at medium low resonance anyway and it's more useful to have volume control in a live situation.

The whole benefit is I now have a very dancy sounding noise sweep that takes just one finger to control leaving the other hand free to play the chord or lead parts. I'm psyched!

[Bugra Ekuklu]

I tried setlist maker, it seems to need quite some work to set it up to your liking but it's pretty good! So thanks for that suggestion
I might try for Kaossilator next, but I mainly need one effect; a fat oscillator or thick noise that lets me control pitch and filter cutoff with my finger. We play a lot of dance and it would be a really useful addition, it's hard to get it right on the Kronos. I've tried fixed samples with sweeps, a knob, slider, ribbon and joystick but I can't really make it work easily.
Does anyone know if Kaossilator can do this? My friend has a KP3 and it has a noise sweep like that that's excellent.

You can try iMS-20's Kaoscillator. You can set scale, tonic and play with the pad. Also you should remember, which is a good fact, when you plug in your iPad to you Kronos, Kronos sound card will take place of iPad's. Still polyphony is not gonna be changed.

Neo-Soul Keys is one of the best apps imho, you should try demo at least.

Buğra

[SanderXpander]

Thanks I'll check out neo soul keys. I didn't really like the Kaossilator app tbh. I don't need to play scales on a touchscreen when I have 88 keys in front of me
But the dance sweep is awesome, I used it yesterday and it really worked!

[Bugra Ekuklu]

Thanks I'll check out neo soul keys. I didn't really like the Kaossilator app tbh. I don't need to play scales on a touchscreen when I have 88 keys in front of me
But the dance sweep is awesome, I used it yesterday and it really worked!

Me neither, mainly I prefer use it for improv. You should double-check what you had used, I did say you iMS-20. Also, for poly synth, Polysix may be appropriate. When I am travelling, I play with MS-20 and Polysix. Sometimes you may achieve good things.

And to be honest, I cannot play Kesha's Tik Tok lead in actual keyboard. I play with my iPad instead. It is hard to be played with one hand which has to do glissando always, iPad supports you to be managed to do it (no friction).

[SanderXpander]

But I already have them on the Kronos, are you saying I should get the iPad versions of MS20 and Polysix? I don't really see a point to be honest.
I play the Tik Tok lead with two hands on my Kronos and use my own AL-1 lead with fingered portamento. It works really well for me! That way I can select which notes have portamento.

[QuiRobinez]

But I already have them on the Kronos, are you saying I should get the iPad versions of MS20 and Polysix? I don't really see a point to be honest.
I play the Tik Tok lead with two hands on my Kronos and use my own AL-1 lead with fingered portamento. It works really well for me! That way I can select which notes have portamento.

if you focus on live play then the ms20 and polysix doesn't have any advantage for you.

I use them both when i'm on the road or on vacation. They both have a sequencer (simple one) in them to create some songs just for fun.

The ms20 on the ipad i use to create patches when i'm away from a kronos and to experiment with the patch panel. When i create a great patch then i transfer it manually to the kronos by copying the values one by one to the knobs on the kronos (a lot of work).

So it's more fun then serious things i do with the ims20 and ipolysix, but both are great apps.


The thing i like the most at the moment is to use the kronos as a soundsource for Nave Programs. I'm stunned by the sound of waldorf nave app and you can use a kronos sound as a source for a custom wave osc and use the spectral Nave functions on that.

To do that i play the C3 note in loopy HD en transfer that trough audiocopy to the Nave Wave window. Then i create the new patch in Nave. It gives a complete new life to the sonic adventures in waldorf nave. Nave is a must have, it brings something I don't have in the kronos. So for me it's a perfect add-on to te kronos setup.